Some wireless communications systems implement a centralized controller such as a system controller or a base station to control and coordinate the allocation of traffic segments in a region, e.g., a cell. In such a centralized system different quality of service requirements and/or needs corresponding to different connections and/or different wireless terminals can be taken into account by the centralized controller which has an overall view of ongoing operations and can make intelligent tradeoff decisions.
However, in a decentralized wireless network such as a peer to peer ad-hoc network, lacking such a centralized controller, it becomes rather difficult to coordinate scheduling of traffic segments and to accommodate different and/or changing quality of service requirements corresponding to different wireless terminals and/or connections. Accordingly there is a need for novel methods and apparatus which support quality of service differentiations in a distributed wireless network such as an ad hoc peer to peer network. It would be advantageous if such methods and apparatus supporting quality of service differentiations in such a distributed network allowed for coordinated quality of service determinations by individual devices in a local vicinity. It would also be beneficial if techniques were employed which facilitated such methods and apparatus without having to add large amounts of overhead signaling which would consume air link resource which could otherwise be employed to carry actual traffic transmission signals.